Varrock
Varrock is the former capital of the Blood-cloak Empire, and current capital of a contested and massive city state. Varrock square.jpg History of Varrock Founding According to legend the ancient city of Vir-Rock was established by Virgil the Great, after being deemed an outlaw due to losing a holmgang against his brother, Prince Ragnar the red. The more realistic explanation is that Varrock was founded as a merchant settlement, and the name came from Vara, the old fremenik godess of trade and commerce. Growth Regardless, Varrock was both strategically and economically well placed, being both shielded and accessible by many rivers connecting the Northern and Eastern Ocean. The city very quickly reaped a great deal of wealth, making it a prime target for both natives and jealous kinsmen. As a result Varrock waged many defensive wars and acquired a great deal of land, at one point stretching to the Great River Lum. The area gained in this period of growth has come to be known as the "city state" of Varrock, as opposed to the Tsardom or Empire. The Empire While the Seacloak Empire can credit its invention towards the ambition and vision of men, the Bloodcloak empire was built off the gold coin. Shortly after the Far East made contact with the city state their demand for cheap labor in the form of slaves was publicly announced. It was not uncommon at this point of time for a merchant to close up his shop and learn how to wield a spear in order to lead men into the wilderness and capture natives to be sold later to the Easterners. When the Chancellor of the city realized that this depopulated land could be captured and used to keep the already overpopulated city healthy, as well as grow the ever greedy States borders, he issued charters to these merchant mercenaries that allowed them to keep the land if they found eager hands to farm it. Provided, of course, they later paid taxes on that land. The State started seeing these men as their own breed of heroes, protecting the city while also bringing it a constant source of food and wealth. It is no wonder then why they would gleefully accept one of these men, David the clever, as their first king rather than a Chancellor like when a merchant class controlled the city. After enough generations these merchant mercenaries knew enough to bring up their sons to be soldiers rather than merchants, teaching them how to minimize loss in battle and maximize gain after the opposition is dealt with, this next generation formed the backbone of the Imperial Army. Knowing that the best slaves came from fertile land, and the best land was the floodplains, King David marched south from the Lum River conquering the floodplains and shipping slaves North to his City until he reached the Lum delta. Seeing how fertile the Lum lands are and the finite amount of slaves and crops he could reap with an army for his ever growing nation, he established Lumbridge as a providence meant to supply the North with crops and serve as a base for future expansion. In the later part of his life, King David established trading posts on the khardian shore, linking his empire with the Desert economically, if not politically. The silver from kharid, slaves from Lum, and soldier from Varrock allowed the Empire to run smoothly for many years. The end of good times TBC